Another Touchdown for Pro-Sports Teams
If things keep going like they’re going, Assembly Bill 1309 might become irrelevant after all. The bill would effectively bar cumulative trauma claims for visiting professional athletes, and is of course meeting with opposition from the usual suspects.
But recently, a Missouri federal district court recently confirmed an earlier arbitrator’s award instructing several football players to file their claims in their home states and not in California.
But the NFL isn’t waiting for California to decide whether or not it wants to be on the receiving end of a boycott for games and training camps – Federal courts are deciding the issues in other states and are consistently telling professional athletes that they must honor their employment contracts and bring their claims for workers’ compensation in their home states.
If you’re not a California team owner, you should be scrambling to create some precedent in your home state for the fact that the forum-selection clause of the pro-sports employment contract is enforceable and requires a professional athlete to bring his or her claim for injury in the home-state of the team.
If the pro-sports teams continue to win victories outside of California, it won’t matter much what happens to AB 1309.
I know the applicants’ attorneys are all chomping at the bit to get pro-sports clients in California, and the defense attorneys are probably looking forward to all those extra billable hours as they valiantly defend this team or that from the meat-grinder of California’s Boards. Your humble blogger it not among them – logic, reason, and basic fairness have to trump a paycheck once in a while, and this is that once-in-a-while.
There is no reason why an employer from Any-State should have to defend a claim in California and be liable for a California award when its employee has barely any connection to California. And continued efforts to drag other teams here and milk them for dollars, which would flow to all the participants in the system, will end up costing California a lot of money – no more games, no more training camps (it simply won’t be worth it anymore).
Here’s hoping for more victories for the side of reason.
Have a good weekend!